About

"Why can't you explore miniature worlds the same way you explore a first-person video game?"

I then sculpted a miniature garden world, "Pryme", in 1/24 scale, with the intention of capturing first-person views inside it.

I created panoramas for "Pryme", with a simple camera and a fisheye lens... and a lot of tedious panorama stitching. Everything beyond the miniature was replaced with a computer-generated extension, and the batch of four finished panoramas was assembled into a virtual tour with a cheap QTVR tool.

I also did a test with reflective spheres embedded in the base of the miniature - which proved that I could extract a seamless 360-degree panorama from a single image.

A simple teaser page for the project is accessible at www.miniaturemultiverse.com. There you can observe what I have so far accomplished in these tests.

The goal of this project is to create a collection of miniature fantasy worlds (Miniature Multiverse: Volume One), each with a unique visual design, and make them available for first-person exploration across a wide range of platforms, at a price point of 99 cents for a single platform version (PC or Mac or iOS) or $2 for a cross-platform bundle (PC and Mac and iOS and whatever else...), with potential left open for an undetermined number of additional volumes should the first one succeed.

I am in process of designing a wide variety of additional miniature worlds to fill out a seven-world collection (Miniature Multiverse: Volume One), but do not currently have the resources needed to physically construct them, or to acquire a game engine which could make the assembled result available on a wide range of platforms, with a high standard of quality... Right now I'm close to a first release: I have pieced together about $550, and with another $430-$470 I'll have enough to release three out of seven areas (a revised version of Pryme, plus Lokus and Vyrsul), on iOS, Mac, and PC...

Releasing on further platforms, like Wii, Xbox 360, Android, and PS3, with four additional areas, (Vyrsul Ark, Glost, Kest, Sapyl) and integrated animations, could end up requiring another $3500 or more, but I'm hoping the first release version will generate enough sales to fund the second version, that the second release version will make enough sales to fund a second volume, and so on...

In a broad sense, the reason this particular project will be so expensive is because the game engine - Unity Pro - required to provide all the added export functionality is expensive (fortunately, the same software can be reused for later volumes) and because these miniature worlds are intended to be rather massive; approximately 40 square feet of surfaces covered in miniature landscaping, all highly detailed... my hope is that Lokus, Vyrsul, and every other world following the first one (Pryme), will feel like an entire world to the player exploring it.

Basically, what I'm trying to do here is get the ball rolling: If I can raise $470, that'll be enough for a simple version 1.0 of Volume One... If I can raise more than that, between $470 and $4000, I'll put the extra towards finishing version 2.0 of Volume One. and over $4000? I'd save it for additional volumes of "Miniature Multiverse", additional software projects, etc... I have a huge backlog of half-finished action flicks, comedy videos, fantasy/sci-fi projects, iPhone apps, and software projects... most of which are moving slowly or stagnating due to either lack of funds or lack of time due to that time being spent earning funds.

I've never had much money on my projects; I've been making videos and making games and art projects for about a decade now, unpaid, and still haven't had a single breakthrough hit... I've learned from that, though, and I know how to get fairly impressive productions completed with minimal resources.

The success of Miniature Multiverse could open a lot of doors for me; I'd like to follow this up with additional volumes, and a wide range of video and video game projects. I'd love to work on independent art projects full-time, but that'll only happen if I have a real success - and I think this is one of the projects that has the potential to be a success for me if I'm able to complete it.

As a way of thanking all of you for your support, I'm offering a large range of rewards to people who contribute funding to the project... this includes preorders of "Miniature Multiverse", the "Isola" games, stock footage packs, credits on the project, and much more...

(Note that when I list software items and stock footage collections among the rewards, these are digital delivery only (file transfers over the internet) - you will not be shipped the items in the mail on physical DVD discs unless that is specified.)

Anyway, thank you for reading this... I'm not sure whether this Kickstarter project will even reach my low-end $470 goal, much less the version 2.0 goal of $4000, but I figured it was worth a try.

I've been making videos, art, and game projects for years now, my quality of work has improved steadily, and I'm able to get some freelance work here and there... so one way or another, I should be able to finish the projects listed here. I won't guarantee that I'll be able to finish them quickly, but I'll do my best to finish them.

Do not expect rewards to arrive quickly; some of these reward items obviously must be created before they can be sent - and that may involve a great deal of effort on my part. Creating all of these miniature worlds will take me a long time. Creating realistic CGI worlds, as in the "Isola" games, likewise, will take a great deal of time.

That said, I'll finish them much faster (and better) the more support I can raise here.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $30 or more
About $30

The above, plus preorder of any other iPhone apps I end up making, and all stock footage collections I have created as of the time this Kickstarter project ends, as well as a credit on Miniature Multiverse: Volume One.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

The above, plus any stock footage collections I ever make in the future, plus credit on all additional volumes of "Miniature Multiverse" - not just the first one - and delivery of "Miniature Multiverse: Volume One" on a physical mailed DVD at time of completion.